Freiburg Baroque Orchestra: Heart & Crown

Program:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Sinfonia from the cantata "Gott soll allein mein Herze haben" BWV 169
Cantata "Pleasurable peace, beloved soul's delight" BWV 170

George Frideric Handel
Ouverture, Aria "Vano amore" & Aria "Il cor mio" from Alessandro HWV 21
Concerto grosso in G major op. 6 No. 1
Aria "Cara Sposa" & Aria "Venti turbini" from Rinaldo HWV 7a/b

Lara Morger, mezzo-soprano
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Gottfried von der Goltz, violin & conductor

Royal Entertainment meets Soli Dei Gloria! George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach are often mentioned in the same breath as figureheads of Baroque musical splendor. Yet the two have little in common (apart from their year of birth). While Handel devoted himself mainly to his operas and oratorios for the royal public in the Italian manner, Bach composed almost 250 cantatas with contrapuntal complexity for Sunday services during the church year.

The concert program "Heart & Crown" with the young alto Lara Morger, who won the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2024, shows how different and unique both composers were. The first half of the concert features Bach's "Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust", an extremely heartfelt cantata for the 6th Sunday after Trinity. Great emotions and breakneck coloraturas await the audience in the second half with arias from Handel's operas Alessandro and Rinaldo. Here, Lara Morger follows in the footsteps of the famous Handel castrati Nicolò Grimaldi and Francesco Bernardi ("Senesino"), who astonished the whole of Europe with their singing skills.